SOLA FIDE

Anneliese Braaten, Charles Craig, PGE, Thad Guy, Rachel Schwabenbauer,
Garrett O’Connell, and Timothy Radermacher

Sola Fide (By faith alone) is a chamber piece written for wind quintet, celesta and vibraphone. This piece was written to commemorate the 500th year of the Lutheran Reformation. The purpose of my work was to connect the current Syrian refugee crisis with Martin Luther’s doctrine that we are saved by faith alone. Before engaging in the composition process, I felt very detached from this global human crisis. I knew very little of its circumstances, and the distance made it easy for me to ignore it, as if it had nothing to do with me. In my composition, I sought to express empathy to this crisis and make it relevant by connecting it to Luther’s teaching.

There are many ways in which the music reflects this connection. For instance, the instrumentation is a metaphor for a refugee camp. There are five wind instruments (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn) and two percussion instruments. Even though the wind instruments produce sound in a similar way, they have very marked differences. Each instrument has a different place of origin, different range and timbre, and different ways of sounding beautiful and grotesque. Despite these differences, many composers have managed to write profound and meaningful music, and in the process of making music the ensemble creates something greater than the sum of its parts. This is exactly what a refugee camp may look like: people coming from a diversity of origins, speaking different languages and telling different stories, headed to a variety of destinations, and having distinct reasons for being there. Despite these differences, they may find a way to live united under the same crisis, and build a communal purpose greater than that of any individual. They are literally saved by their faith and the solidarity towards each other. In a way, this piece is an attempt to portray the complicated and meaningful communities united at the core by faith alone.